A map of Aurora from 1878. Scale is denoted in chains, a measure equivalent to 66 feet or 20.12 metres.

Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe gave the order for Yonge Street to be extended to Holland Landing in 1793, the first step toward the establishment of a community where Aurora now stands. Yonge Street opened between 1794 and 1796. In 1795, the first house in Aurora was built at Yonge St and Catherine Av.[5] The government began granting deeds to land in 1797. By 1801 there were fourteen homes.[6]

In 1804, Richard Machell became the first merchant at the crossroads of Yonge and Wellington and the hamlet soon became known as Machell's Corners. Charles Doan was another early businessman at Machell's Corners and became the first postmaster and later the first reeve. The post office was originally known as "Whitchurch".[7]:10 As postmaster, he was influential in renaming the village Aurora, after the goddess Aurora from Roman mythology.[7]:10[a] Machell proposed to rename the town "Match-Ville", ostensibly for the match factory in the town, but the name Aurora was more popular and ultimately chosen as the town's name.[7]:12 Flour and grist mills were built around 1827. With the coming of the railway in 1853, Aurora emerged as an important centre north of Toronto. The Fleury plough works foundry opened in 1859, making agricultural implements.[8]

The community was first known as Machell's Corners and had only 100 residents in 1851.[9]
The population of Aurora in 1863 was 700, and by 1869 it had grown to 1200.[10]

The settlement was incorporated as a village in 1863 with Charles Doan as the first reeve. Records from 1885 describe Aurora as the "largest village in the county" an "enterprising and stirring business community" with several factories and mills, five churches, a school house with 210 students, and two weekly newspapers. The population in 1881 was 1540.[11][12] The population reached 2,107 by 1888.

Aurora was the childhood home of Lester B. Pearson, Prime Minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968, when his father, Rev. Edwin Pearson, was the Methodist minister.[7]:40

Aurora is noted for preserving its historical built form and in 2008 was awarded The Prince of Wales Prize for Municipal Heritage Leadership.[13] In 2009 the town received the Lieutenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award for Community Leadership in heritage conservation and promotion.[14]

On April 8, 2010, the town re-opened the historic and fully renovated Church Street School as the Aurora Cultural Centre.

According to the 2016 Census, the town had a population of 55,445. The town's growth rate from 2011 to 2016 was 4.2 per cent. Based upon current population figures and total area, the town's population density is 1,112.3 residents per square kilometre. The population is forecasted to reach approximately 69,688 by 2020. In 2010, average household income in Aurora was $155,463, making it one of Canada's most affluent towns.[19]

Local police services are provided by the York Regional Police, who serve all of the municipalities of the region. Fire protection services are provided by Central York Fire Services, a shared arrangement with the town of Newmarket.

Public health services are managed by York Region. There is no hospital within Aurora's boundaries; the nearest is Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket.

Both publicly funded English boards maintain head offices in Aurora. The York Region District School Board is located at 60 Wellington Street West, just west of the historical downtown area, and the York Catholic District School Board is located at 320 Bloomington Road West. Both boards operate a number of elementary schools in Aurora. Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud operates only one elementary school in Aurora: École St. Jean.

The York Region District School Board operates two high schools in Aurora:

A largely undeveloped portion of Aurora is subject to the Ontario Government's Greenbelt legislation which enforces limits on growth in designated Green Belt locations. In Aurora, this affects mostly the south-eastern areas of the town.

Growth is occurring in the north-eastern locations, particularly in the form of high-density residential homes and townhouses along Bayview Ave and north of Wellington St. E. (also known as "Aurora Rd."), and commerce along Wellington St. E. on Aurora's eastern border between Leslie St. and Hwy. 404.

Future growth will be concentrated in two greenfield areas of the town: the 2C Lands, located on the east and west sides of Leslie Street, running north from Aurora Road to the town limit, just north of the St. John's Sideroad. As part of its current Official Plan review, Aurora Town Council will soon be considering a plan that will see employment lands, worth approximately 6,000 jobs, preserved on the east side of Leslie Street, with residential restricted to the west side of Leslie Street.

One other area of growth will be via intensification along the Yonge and Wellington Street corridors. As part of the town's Official Plan review, a sub-committee of Council developed a plan in 2010, called the Aurora Promenade, that sets out new and redevelopment for the coming years.[22] More than 30 public meetings, open-houses and workshops were held to create the plan. It is anticipated that 2,930 additional residents will live along the Yonge and Wellington Street corridors, close to new major transportation systems being implemented by Viva. The study was expected to stimulate new and redevelopment along both corridors in the coming years and to reinvigorate the downtown core.

The Aurora Public Library is located in the northeast corner of the intersection of Yonge Street and Church Street. A library was first established in Aurora in 1855, and was moved to the current location in 2001. The library is open all days of the week, but closed on Sundays between May 17 and September 11, and between December 20 and January 2.

Major roads running through Aurora include Bathurst Street at its western border, Yonge Street, Bayview Avenue, Leslie Street, and Highway 404 at its eastern border and Bloomington Road at the southern border. Wellington Street is the town's major east-west road, with the Yonge-Wellington area having the busiest traffic volume in Aurora. St John's Sideroad is the northernmost main road in the town, located about 100 metres from its northern border.

The Aurora GO Station is a stop on GO Transit's Barrie Line. Trains depart approximately every 15–30 minutes southbound towards Toronto during weekday morning peak periods, and northbound towards Barrie approximately every 30 minutes during the afternoon peak. On evenings, weekends, holidays, as well as during the weekday midday period, trains operate approximately every hour between Aurora and Toronto with GO Bus connections at Aurora to and from Barrie.[24] Under the GO Transit Regional Express Rail plan, by a target date of 2024 service will be increased to run every 15 minutes during peak, midday, evenings, and weekends between Aurora and Toronto using electric trains rather than the current diesel trains, and every along the full route between Barrie and Toronto every 30 minutes during peak and every 60 minutes off-peak.[25]

Local media include Metroland-owned The Banner (formerly the Era Banner) and The Auroran (a member of the Simcoe York Group of Newspapers) newspapers and Aurora programming provided by Rogers Cable (formerly Aurora Cable Internet).

Aurora has a long history of theatre, with its own community theatre group, Theatre Aurora. Founded in 1958 as the Aurora Drama Workshop, the group joined with the Aurora Musical Society in 1973 to form Theatre Aurora. The next year the group moved into its current home at the Factory Theatre on Henderson Drive. The group has performed a wide variety of shows, and currently produces five shows each year, along with two youth shows.

The Aurora armoury is a recognized Federal Heritage building, listed in 1991 on the Register of the Government of Canada Heritage Buildings.[27]

Aurora is also home to Hillary House National Historic Site. Hillary House is recognized by the National Historic Sites and Monuments Board as one of Canada's best examples of Gothic Revival architecture.[28]